Music Education

Jack and Ryker and I listen to music all the time. Past favorites of theirs, as you might recall, are Michael Buble and the Beatles. The other morning the Beastie Boys came on and Ryker immediately started head banging and clapping. So I guess that's on the list.

For awhile it was "1, 2, 3, 4" by the Plain White T's. Good choice.

More recently Jack has been requesting "Hit the Road Jack" by Ray Charles. Another good choice.

This morning Jack said "Mommy, can we have that one that was on first thing when we got in the car yesterday?" It took me a second, and then I remembered that it was "Stand By Me."

About 3/4 of the way through it Jack is beaming and goes "I really, REALLY like this song."

Then we got to school and he announced "I fink I will wuv dat song and 'Hit the Wode Jack' for my whole entire wife."

Spring Performance

My kids had their spring performance at school yesterday. Jack is a seasoned veteran of these. I've lost track, I think this might be his 4th performance? 5th? Bad mom.

This also marked the second time he's graduated. He graduated from pre-school last year but missed the cut-off for kindergarten, so he stayed at his same school. They kept him busy with other work, and feel like he's really completed kindergarten now, so he got to graduate again. Ironically, he had visited the kindergarten he'll attend next year that same morning. Visit kindergarten, wait seven hours, graduate from kindergarten.

The program was awesome, as usual. The kids are hilarious. If you're having a bad day, go watch some tiny kids singing and dancing. Or crying, as the case may be.

Jack got to start things off. He stood in front of everyone and said in a very loud and clear voice "Pweeze stand for da national anfum." Adorable.

Jack sang and danced. I have videos but they won't upload so you'll have to wait. Ryker mostly stuffed his bandana in his mouth and waved at us.

Here are some pics. They're blurry.

An Infant or a Drop-Leaf Table

One of my coworkers has dubbed me The Most Baby-Crazed Person Who Does Not Want a Baby that she knows.

It's true.

I honestly do NOT want a baby. I'm done with being pregnant, being up at all hours, and being permanently attached to another human being. Our two boys keep us running enough, thank you very much. Plus I don't feel like moving into a zone defense. I made a living, while playing basketball, at finding the holes in zone defenses and exploiting them. (Follow that, all you non-sportos?) I'm not really in the mood to perpetually have one of my children find themselves "open."

What I want is to hug babies up until they begin to cry or need a diaper changed or start talking-back. Then I want to hand them off to their proper caregiver.

I also need something NEW. I'm nesting, for no good reason. I am cleaning and purging and organizing and threatening to paint several of the rooms in the house. I told Chuck that instead of a baby, I'd take a four new bar stools and a dining set.

Is that black-mail? Threatening your husband with another child, or at the very least a whiny baby-crazed wife, if he does not buy you new home furnishings?

Bull Riding 2011

We have a tradition with Uncle Ry Ry and Grandpa Mark where we all meet up in Des Moines, IA in May for Professional Bull Riding (PBR). The first year was a learning experience for us, wherein we learned that everything we thought we knew about bull riding (and the treatment of the bulls) was wrong. Now we've been several times and sort of feel like we know what's going on.

We drove down on Friday evening and checked into the hotel. The boys were a dream in the car. Traveling is getting easier as the boys get bigger. DVDs can be watched all the way through now, as opposed to the 20 minutes they used to last. We also had the aid of our new Family Marble Jar. Each of us earns a marble for exceedingly good behavior, or random acts of kindness, or any other time Chuck and I feel like it. Once the jar is filled, we'll get to go to the Water Park of America. More on that later, I'm sure.

The hotel presented a first for the boys - Ryker was NOT in a crib, and the boys would share the foldout couch. I threatened life and limb if they got up in the night. Ryker got up anyway - four times. Oh well. Saturday we got up, had breakfast with Ry Ry and Grandpa and then walked around the largest farmer's market I have ever seen. Then the boys headed off on a shopping trip. They arrived back at the hotel with brand new cowboy hats. They were THRILLED.

Jack could not have looked MORE like a cowboy. It was hilarious. Ryker doesn't really have the same build as a rider, but looked adorable anyway.

Dinner was at an amazing steakhouse, where we had a private room and were treated like celebrities. Ry Ry was the amazing uncle he always is, taking the boys for walks around the restaurant whenever they asked. At one point he had Jack curled around his torso, in what he calls a Koala Hug, and was holding Ryker's hand walking through this fancy place.

As a side note of endorsement, if you ever are in Des Moines, you have got to go there - 801. I had an amazing filet and the yummiest mac and cheese I've ever had, along with an amazing cabernet.

From there we went to the arena. We had seats in the 3rd row. It was awesome. Grandpa had earplugs for Ryker, because the introductions are LOUD:

Ryker was entirely confused for the duration of the event. He was a good sport though. Jack loved it. At one point he was sitting in his seat, holding his hat high above his head. I told him he should probably lower it so the people behind him could see past him. He goes "but I want everyone to SEE IT." So proud of his new hat. I was in heaven because I have a slight crush on the rodeo clown, Flint. Love him.

The kids were up way past their bedtime but were angels the whole time. We got them in bed as fast as we could. At 3:30am I awoke to Jack standing next to me, sobbing. He said he was running to tell me something and forgot our door was closed. He ran straight into it. As I'm talking to him, I heard a "blah!" sound from the other room. I asked Jack what he was coming to tell me, and he goes "oh, Ryker is throwing up."

We got Ryker cleaned up, housekeeping got us new sheets, and they were back in bed 15 minutes later. We got through the 4 hour drive without further incident, and have some good stories to tell.

Thanks to Grandpa and Uncle Ry Ry for an amazing trip!!

Crickets

I just signed Jackson up for his first art class at the museum. I've been dying to do this but he wasn't old enough. He gets to come here for three hours a day, every day, for one week in July. We'll get him up here at lunch and then I can take him home with me. His class? Crazy About Crickets. "Let's take a journey to China, where crickets have been kept as pets for thousands of years. We'll take on a cricket's persona and illustrate a "day-in-the-life" story, telling about its adventures inside the museum."

How cute is that?

So he gets to go up in the galleries and look at art related to crickets, and then come down to the studios and make his own pet cage filled with clay crickets! He's apparently also going to illustrate poems he has written about bugs in a Chinese style. Ha! Good luck to the teachers with that one.

Anyway, I'm pumped. It's not until July. I can't wait!

Home Sick

This time it's Jack. Chuck had it, I had it, now Jack has it. Although he is far less whiny about it.

I just brought him home and I'm getting him settled. He just came up to me and goes (I'm typing this as he's speaking):

"Mommy, I want one of those things that Pay-ten (that's how he pronounces it - very emphatically separating the Pay from the Ten) has. It's a flat thing and you swap (slap) it on your wrist but it doesn't hurt. And it is a mag-a-net and it has negative and positive mag-a-nets. And you hit it on you and it gets the power from your wrist. I fink dats how it works. And it stays there but it's easy to take off and if you have an owie you shouldn't wear it, even doe it won't hurt. Even if you fink it won't hurt it sometimes will."

Random Tidbits

I seem incapable of stringing together coherent stories.

1. Jack wanted to get his hair shaved off. I let him. His rationale? His previous faux hawk left hair on the top half of his forehead - and no freckles were there. He said he wanted the hair gone so he could have freckles all over. SO CUTE.

2. I had Ryker help me garden over the weekend. We have tall grasses and I told him that we needed to take the dead grass off the top so the little baby grasses could see the sun. He thought about that while he helped, then announced that his baby was coming. I asked who his baby was and he said "John Legend." Then for thirty minutes we gardened and he told me all about Baby John Legend, who apparently is going to land on the roof and then JUMP JUMP JUMP and JUMP down and then land in the grasses, and he needs a big crib because he can climb all over. And he eats mac n cheese. This morning he was eating and goes "where IS my baby John Legend?" and looked all around him.

3. If you read Facebook or Twitter you'll know this already, but this morning I left the boys watching Scooby Doo, via Netflix. Our remotes and crazy sound system are hard to navigate through. Really, really hard to navigate through. I thought it was fine. I went into the bathroom to get ready. When I came into the bedroom again, I did not hear Scooby Doo. Instead, I heard a news correspondent. I came into the living room to find that they had turned off Netflix, turned on our satellite, and were watching Wolf Blitzer explain that bin Laden was dead.

4. Ryker has been experimenting with independence. Most children do that at his age - and they show it by going to the bathroom by themselves, trying to dress themselves, etc. Ryker took it a bit further. While we all sat at the neighbors' house, Ryker took it upon himself to go back to our house, let himself in, grab some DVDs and a pad of paper, and bring them back to Nicki's. I scolded him. He did it again, this time retrieving an energy bar. Like he needs more energy.

5. My favorite of Ryker's new pronunciations:
--"dee-vee-dee-vees" (DVDs)
--"Scooby Doobie" (Scooby Doo)
--"Pickle Me" (Despicable Me)
--"I no yike you." (I don't like you. -- And yes, we hear this.)

6. Jack wants us to write notes and put them in an envelope he made. He taped it to the wall with a pen attached to it. He said that when the envelope gets full, we'll take it off the wall and give it to a child who is not behaving. I was with him until that part. I asked what we are supposed to write and he said "like 'BEHAVE' or 'We don't hit'." Ha.

Never a dull moment.